Dhi

Sweet Illusions

'How did people function in this time without coffee?'

That was the only thought in Abhijishya's mind while she dragged herself to her chambers. She planned on slipping in unnoticed beside Nakul. He was such a worrywart at times. She didn't like to make him worry about her. The skin on her feet were prune from being soaked in the water for so long. Her legs ached too.

Well, she had no one but herself to blame. She was also in a dilemma. Part of her didn't want to go to the temple but another part of her wanted to reach to the bottom of this issue. She also didn't know what excuse she can give if she wanted to skip out on the puja without hurting anyone's sentiments.

First, she needed to take a bath. Cold bath. She hoped that would definitely wake her up completely.

Abhijishya entered her room to find all curtains still drawn. She mentally sighed in relief. That means Nakul was asleep. She went towards their bed and stopped short.

Nakul was sitting at the edge of their bed with his shoulders hunched. He was looking at the ground.

"Arya?" she called tentatively.

He lifted his head up and said loudly,"Dasi."

A dasi entered and bowed.

"No one is to enter our chamber. I want complete privacy," he said.

"As you order, Rajkumar. Shall I open the curtains?" the dasi asked.

"Leave," Nakul snapped.

Abhijishya could sense his anger towards her so she remained standing at a distance unsure how to approach him. This was the first time that Nakul was angry with her.

The dasi left quickly.

He was still not looking at her.

"Where were you last night?" he asked.

"By the seaside," she answered.

"The entire night," he said flatly. Abhijishya remained silent knowing that it was a statement; not a question.

He sighed and looked at her. "You spent the entire night standing on the beach."

Nakul got up and started pacing. She watched him silently. He turned towards her and said,"Abhijishya, you are not taking care of yourself. If you continue like this you will fall sick. This is not normal."

"It's fine, really. You are worrying too much. I sometimes have trouble with sleep. I did have dinner yesterday," she tried to reassure him.

"You had trouble sleeping before when you just lost your everything and started staying with us. You just had a measly portion of khichdi in the entire day. You haven't slept in two days. Tell me what is going on," Nakul said.

Abhijishya kept her silence. In truth, she didn't know how to explain something she didn't even understand.

"Fine," Nakul said. "Don't tell me but solve this. Whatever is wrong. I don't like the dasis talking about how we don't get along." He turned away and went to open the curtains.

She bit her tongue to prevent herself from snapping at him. Abhijishya felt tired and already was in a sour mood. Logically she knew that Nakul was only concerned about her but his disappointed and angry tone was rubbing her the wrong way.

"What? Are you just going to stand there silently?" he said without looking at her.

"I don't want to speak to you," she said calmly.

"Well congratulations! Because you have been successfully doing that from the beginning of whatever that is going on with you," he said sarcastically.